Locked up
by Firemaker
Summary: Harry gets tired of Ron and Hermione ignoring each other during HBP so hatches a plan. R/H, Oneshot


Oneshot - Set during The Half Blood Prince

Harry had had enough of having to deal with the two of his friends not talking. What was even worse was that even when they were apart all they talked about was each other. It was so clear, even to him that Ron did not want Lavender and that Hermione was simply fuming with jealousy. It was even beginning to affect his work as Hermione outright refused to help him with his homework because she knew Ron would copy. And then there were the times that he had to deal with Lavender and Ron together. Lavender annoying seemed to regard every moment that she didn't have her tongue stuck down Ron's throat as a complete waste of time. He d never seen the two of them speaking, all they did was snog. To him it seemed so fake seeing as when Ron wasn't Lavender the topic immediately turned to Hermione. He'd had enough. He was going to fix things.

Harry was inside the common room sitting on one of the sofa's wracking his brains on ideas of how he could get his two best friends to see what the rest of the world dubbed as obvious. In the corner in another chair were Won Won and Lavender entangled in each other in such a manner that you couldn't even distinguish ones robes from another.

"Disgusting isn't it." Harry looked up to see Ginny Weasley motioning to the entangled couple.

"You don't even know the half of it." he said rolling his eyes. "Actually I don't either. He never mentioned Lavender once and then suddenly I found them wrapped around each other after the quidditch match."

"It's partly my fault actually." Ginny said with a sigh.

"What don't be ridiculous." Harry shot back. He felt the need to defend Ginny almost instantly. "This whole business only started in the first place cause Hermione and Krum kissed."

"That's why it s my fault. I was the one who told him to go and 'get a bit of snogging done yourself'." Ginny shook her head slowly. "Anyway how's Hermione taking it?"

"Badly. She won't even be in the same room as him. They haven't spoken since. Though they weren't on good terms from the moment you mentioned Krum to be honest."

"They like each other that much?" Ginny said in exclamation.

"What?" Harry exclaimed back. He didn't see how they could like each other at all at the moment.

"They are both jealous."

"That much is obvious, yes."

"But for them to have gone so far, it means that they are both really hurt by what happened." Ginny explained, as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"That's all well and good, but how do you fix it. I want my friends back."

"They just need to talk." Ginny said with a smile.

"And just how are they going to talk if Hermione refuses to be anywhere near Ron?"

"We'll just have to trick them into being in the same room together then won't we. And then lock it with magic."

"That's a great idea Ginny!" Harry said beaming. She smiled back, and Harry could have sworn his heart skipped a beat. "All though, after what happened at the Christmas party, Hermione might just kill Ron instead." Harry said as an afterthought.

"Well, I guess the best thing we could do is loosen their tongues a bit you know. I dare say a bit of butterbeer and some food left in the room ought to do the trick."

"You're amazing, you know that." Harry said happily.

"So how will we get them into the room?" Ginny asked. "And what room do we use."

"Isn't that obvious?" Harry supplied "The Room of Requirement. I'll just tell them to meet me in there and then slip out when one of them enters."

"That's perfect! So this Saturday then?"

"Sure."

-x-y-z-

Ron had just gotten back from an all morning quidditch practice showered and then found himself in the middle of what up until Christmas had been his new favourite pastime. Snogging Lavender Brown. He had once enjoyed the large amount of physical time the two shared but now, now it had gotten very stale. All they did was snog. They didn't talk. In fact the odd times he'd tried to talk to her he found that he disliked talking to her, in between being constantly called Won Won and all her silly laughs Lavender brown was beginning to get on his nerves.

And then there was the issue of Hermione. She flat out refused to be in the same room as him. At first he hadn't felt guilty. After all it wasn t like Hermione wanted to take him to the dance as anything more than a friend. So he felt that he was well within his rights to kiss anyone that he wanted. Had she been clear that it was a date he would have acted different. But seeing as she just wanted to take him along as a friend, almost a pity date really to keep him included, he felt no obligation to keep himself single.

However things had really backfired. Hermione flat out refused to speak to him and he wanted his friend back. He even felt quite guilty as even now as he was kissing Lavender, all that was going through his mind was Hermione. Hermione, Hermione, Hermione. He found her nothing short of infuriating at times but he still liked her. He loved all the little things she did, such as the good luck kisses on his cheek before a game of quidditch or the way she somehow always managed to clumsily get butterbeer or toothpaste smeared around her mouth. And truth be told, he even missed bickering with her. They did it so often he had begun to enjoy watching as she got annoyed and flustered, with her hair going all over the place as if it was a physical manifestation of her mood within.

"Won Won, I asked what are you doing today?" Lavender exclaimed.

"Oh, sorry." Ron had failed to even notice Lavender had stopped kissing him and had begun to ask him questions.

"Won Won!" Ron realised he was really beginning to hate that name.

"What was the question again?" at this Lavender seemed really exasperated.

"I asked you what are you doing today?" Ron wracked his brains for an excuse to avoid spending the whole day with her. Then he remembered Harry asking him to meet him by the room of requirement before lunch.

"Oh, I promised Harry I'd do something with him, before lunch." he then looked at his watch. "Actually I should be going now." he said getting to his feet and before Lavender could protest he gave her a light peck and ran up to the seventh floor of Hogwarts.

"There you are!" said Harry looking rather pleased. He seemed to be carrying a basket full of what Ron's nose instantly identified as food.

"What's that for?"

"Oh I just felt like eating up here today and actually I wanted private." Harry said. Ron nodded assuming he wanted to talk about something important. Anyway lets go in.

The two of them entered the room to find a nice spacious looking room with a table for two in the middle. There were weirdly, pictures on the wall of Harry, Ron and Hermione from different years since they had entered Hogwarts. There was a gramophone playing some light jazzy music and the room wasn't too lightly lit.

"I think the room kinda got the vibe wrong." Ron said jokingly and both of them laughed a little.

"Actually I just forgot something, I'll be right back." Harry said, rushing out the door.

In the meantime Ron opened the basket to find it full of food and even a few bottles of butterbeer. He set the butterbeer on the table and then took out one of the bacon sandwiches and began to devour it with a content smile on his face.

After ten minutes Ron began to wonder just where Harry had gotten to when the door opened.

"There you are, I was wondering where you'd got to Harry." He called out not looking behind him.

"Just what are YOU doing here?" came the answer. Ron winced. He knew exactly who was behind him and it wasn't Harry. He stood up and turned to see Hermione Granger, looking thoroughly annoyed though no different to how she had been acting these past few months. "Anyway, I have coursework to do, I'm going." Hermione turned back around but to her dismay the door had disappeared. "What's going on?" she cried.

"I don't know, Harry just said to meet him here, and then he disappeared saying he'd be back." Ron replied. He felt slightly annoyed that she was so desperate to be rid of his presence though.

"He told me to come in here and that he would be right back as he had forgotten something." Hermione said.

"Well he didn't say anything about you coming. If he had, I wouldn't have come along." Ron said feeling hurt that Hermione was so desperate to be away from him.

"Trust me, I had no intention of spending any time around you either!" she said red faced, fists balled up. She then looked around the room as if there would be an escape route elsewhere. She then walked up to the sofa where she picked up a note. Ron watched as she read the note. Her face contorted in anger when she had evidently finished.

"What's on it?" he asked, curious. She attempted to throw the note at him, but being paper it just floated around and fell to the floor. This led to Ron exploding into a fit of laughter. Hermione simply stormed off to the other side of the room and sat down facing the wall. Ron walked up and picked up the note.

Dear Ron & Hermione We've had enough. You two won't be able to leave this room, until you talk and make up. We've left food and drink, so you won't starve or die of thirst. Try not to kill each other either.

Love Harry and Ginny.

"Those two meddling brats." Ron whispered under his breath.

"What was that?" Hermione called out.

"Nothing." Ron replied. With that he took another bacon sandwich and sat down to eat.

"Could you eat any louder please?" Hermione called out again sarcastically.

"Ehts nou my folt tha mmm hunnngry." Ron replied his mouth full of food.

"What?"

"It's not my fault that I'm hungry." At this Hermione rolled her eyes and allowed herself a small smile. If there was anything Ron was consistently, it was hungry. She walked up to the table slowly and sat down.

"What's in the basket then?" she asked, whilst doing everything she could to avoid looking at Ron. However the wall was littered with moving photographs of her and Ron so this was making the task unnecessarily hard. They were photos of happier times and she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to be happy around Ron.

Ron shoved the basket across without a word and went back to eating. She wordlessly took the basket to the other side of the room and pulled out a chocolate eclair. Ron looked at her in wonder. Did she really not want to anywhere near him? It bothered him so he felt he had to say something.

"You're being ridiculous, come and sit down here." he hadn't meant to make his voice sound so scathing, but it appeared to work as she sat down on the table with a huff and began tucking her eclaire. For the next five minutes all that could be heard was cutlery chewing and and rustling.

"Are you really going to pretend I don't exist?" Ron said, when he'd had enough. It annoyed him to no end that Hermione was right there and refusing to acknowledge his presence.

"Yes." she replied coldly. Ron recoiled at this slightly. He had expected such an answer, but not one dripping with venom.

"How mature. We'll be locked in here for all eternity then." Ron replied.

"You're going to lecture me on maturity?" she said with a look of incredulity. "You have to be the most immature person in the whole of the wizarding world!"

"Say's the person that attacked me with birds simply cause I finally found a girl willing to kiss me!"

"Puh-lease, what you two do cannot be called kissing. More like eating each others faces!"

"And that's immature because?" at this Hermione went completely red.

"Well... urm... cause you two never even talk!" she finished. It was a weak argument and she knew it.

"What do you mean by that?" Ron asked, indignant.

"Could you even tell me Lavender's favorite food? Or whether she has any siblings and their names?"

"... What?" Ron spluttered. She had him, it was true. They didn't talk all that much and on the odd occasion that they did, it was never anything serious. "Well... urm-"

"Exactly!" she said triumphantly. When Ron didn't say anything she continued on. "Why are you even with her then? If you don't like her enough to talk to her and she doesn't care to find out anything about you either why even bother?" The direction the conversation was headed in bothered Ron immensely. There was little he could say at this point that wouldn't be a lie. So he simply shut up and poured himself a drink of butterbeer.

The silence went on for a while, uncomfortable, Hermione with her arms crossed and Ron staring at his drink like it would provide all the answers.

"You want to know why I'm with her?" Ron asked softly. Hermione said nothing. Ron took his drink and drunk half of it at once as if it would give him instant courage. "Let me ask you, then, why were you with Krum?" he asked, softly. Hermione's mouth opened but nothing came out. She wasn't entirely sure what to say. Krum had always treated her well and he'd noticed her when he had half the girls in the school throwing themselves at him.

"Well," she said slowly "He noticed me when nobody else did." Ron nodded, as if that was exactly the answer he was expecting. He refilled his glass and filled hers also. And they sat there drinking in silence for a while.

"It's nice to feel wanted." Ron said, after some time. "To be noticed... Even if... it's not the person you want to notice you."

"But..." Hermione started and trailed off. She realized that this was Ron she was dealing with here. He was the last son in his family, but not the last child. He had Harry Potter and herself as friends. In all of that, she could see just how easy it would be to feel somewhat unimportant and lost in between all of that. Taking a bite of her sandwich and gulping it down with butterbeer she empathize a little with just how things seemed from Ron's eyes. It was partly her fault too and she knew it. She knew Ron was one of the most obtuse people ever when it came to feelings and she'd never been clear about hers. But even then she felt hurt that he had carried on dating Lavender for all this time, especially now that she knew it wasn't that he actually liked her. It wasn't even fair to -

"Wait a second. If you don't fancy Lavender, aren't you being unfair to her?" she said heatedly. The thought had barely formed in her head before it was out her mouth. "You're using her!"

"You don't think I know that?" Ron came back suddenly angry. He was angry at Hermione, himself and the whole situation. He knew it was true. He had been using Lavender as a substitute for not having the girl in front of him and it was a terrible one. It didn't even take Hermione off his mind. If anything it made her take a more prominent role in it. "I know it's wrong. I know it's the easy option."

"Then why do it."

"It's just... I thought it would be easier this way." Ron voice was softer. "I thought I could get over..." his voice trailed off. He was unwilling to state the fact that the whole time the person who he wanted to get over was Hermione.

"And has it worked?" she asked, her voice also dropping several decibels. He shook his head slowly.

"Before you say anything I know. I know I should break up with her. I've been meaning to ever since christmas."

"Then why haven't you?"

"I've tried, she keeps clings tighter every time." he said sadly. "Anyway, you can't talk about leading people on, you took MacClaggen to Slughorn's christmas party. And before you interject, I know you did it to get back at me." Hermione simply started laughing at this. Ron looked at her perplexed, not understanding what had been so funny about that. He still remembered the comment she had made about only liking 'good quidditch players'.

"Sorry, I know I shouldn't laugh. It's just it was the worst idea I ever had. He's vile."

"Serves you right."

"What?" Hermione said indignant.

"You only took him to get back at me." Whatever protest was on Hermione's lips died at that moment. Under the influence of butterbeer though, Ron felt that he could be slightly more honest than he usually was. "It's okay though. I'll be honest. The reason I kissed Lavender in the first place is because Ginny told me you kissed Viktor." Hermione sighed. To find out the last four months had occurred because of something two years ago was infuriating, however she couldn't be annoyed at Ron because to him it obviously felt like it had happened the day before. However she did want him to come clean.

"And just why does the idea of you kissing another boy anger you?" she asked. She knew the answer was for the same reason she hated seeing him with Lavender. But she wanted him to admit it.

"Doesn't matter." Ron said turning bright red. He looked around the room casting for a new topic as he didn't want to have to explain why he was so bothered by Viktor. He knew the answer was simple and selfish. Viktor had gotten there first. In fact, regretfully he didn't even come fully to terms with his feelings until after the Yule ball. He hadn't even gotten so much as a dance. Feeling more dutch courage come into him from the influence of the butterbeer he had been drinking he thought that now was as good a time as any to rectify that.

"Sonorous." said Ron as he pointed his wand at the gramaphone that was playing music. "We've done enough talking. Want to... erm... dance?" he said going even more red than he had done previously.

"What, why?" Hermione replied feeling surprised that Ron could suggest such a thing.

"Well, it's occurred to me, we've never had the chance to dance you know. Thought that we might as well fix that." Ron said, his face going even more red.

"Okay." Hermione whispered. Her voice was so quiet and soft she was unsure as to whether she had spoken herself. The two of them stood up and Ron stretched out his hand. Hermione took it and stepped close to him without a word being said. Ron placed his other hand on the small of her back and they began to move around the room slowly in unison. However neither of them were looking at the room. Ron's eyes were focused completely on Hermione and her eyes on his. He drawn to her and she overtook his senses. He knew it was wrong, in the back of his mind the word Lavender was bouncing around but it was getting quieter and quieter as he lost himself in the Hermione's eyes, her scent, the soft breaths and the music around them. The atmosphere was more intoxicating that a bottle of firewhisky for him at that moment.

Hermione was struggling. She knew what was going on at this moment was something that could not happen. Ron, still had a girlfriend. Whether or not he liked Lavender was out of the question. The thoughts that were going through her head were wrong. She wanted to close the little distance between their lips, she wanted to feel his body pressed up against her own. But she had to think about her roommate. It would be one thing for Ron to break up with her. But for Hermione to seduce Ron and cause him to cheat on her was just not something she felt she should go along with.

"We should stop." she whispered delicately. Ron stopped moving but kept just as close. His eyes staring into her own.

"Why?" Ron said back. He didn't want to stop. This was possibly one of the best moments of his life. He didn't want it to end. He had in his arms, the girl he had always seen as out of reach. He wanted to be done waiting, done guessing, he wanted her.

"Because... because... you have a girlfriend!" she whispered heatedly. She felt sad. Most of her would have been quite content to continue. But Ron looked back at her.

"Hermione." Ron whispered softly, moving his face even closer to hers. He looked at the girl in front of him, her hair cascaded all over the place, her eyes firmly on him and he felt totally intoxicated with her.

"Yes."

"I love you." he said. And then before she could even open her mouth to begin to say anything he kissed her softly. Ron felt a wave of euphoria overtake him as his lips touched hers. It felt nothing short of amazing. Nothing like those times with Lavender, where he'd either been trying to forcefully forget Hermione or wondering what it would be like to kiss Hermione instead. He pulled back though to give her the chance to pull away. He hoped she wouldn't, as she would have pulled his heart out with her.

Hermione was in shock. He'd just told her he loved her and kissed her. The kiss had been soft and chaste and she wanted more. She wrapped her arms around his neck and brought her lips back onto his again. But this time it was like there was an explosition of fire inside her as she touched him. She pulled him in closer, molding her body against his and slicked her tongue out onto his lower lip. He opened his mouth and granted her access to his mouth where they began to massage their tongues against each other. He pulled her in closer and moaned into her mouth. She pushed him back till the ended up falling onto the sofa that had been there before kissing him ferociously as is she had to make up for years of lost time. Eventually though she had to pull back for air. And as the oxygen entered her bloodstream slowly logic began to enter with it.

"Ron," she whispered. "I love you too. But we can't do this." she said gently. It was true, this was so wrong.

"Why? I'm done waiting, finished. Done not doing what I want to do. And what I want to do is kiss you and hold you and tell you that I love you!" he exclaimed.

"But what about Lavender."

"She means nothing." he said heatedly. "I'll chuck her in an instant if only for an hour with you." the butterbeer had loosened Ron's tongue and he knew whilst everything that was coming out was wild, it was also totally true.

"Ron!" she cried. Hermione wasn't sure why she was fighting this, only she knew that now whatever the outcome someone was going to be hurt.

"I'm not taking this back, any of it. And would you really want me to?" he asked.

"No." she said softly. It would be cruel. To have a taste of bliss and then let it go would be nothing short of cruel.

"Good." and with that he resumed kissing her. They pulled at each other like they couldn't get enough, hands going everywhere. When they broke apart again Ron pulled her in close and embraced her.

"It's always been you, even before I knew consciously, the only person I wanted is you." he said.

"I. love. you. Ronald. Weasley." she replied punctuating each word with a kiss.

"Anyway, shall we leave this room now? I'm guessing we don't want Harry and Ginny to worry too much." Ron said. "And I need to go find Lavender." at the mention of Lavender, the state of euphoria the two had been feeling seeped out. Ron was not looking forward to having to break up with her.

"What are you going to tell her." Hermione asked after an uncomfortable silence.

"The truth. She deserves it." Ron admitted.

"Be gentle." she replied.

"I'll try." Ron said. He took her hand and squeezed it.

As they walked towards where the door had been, hand in hand, the door for the room of requirement reappeared. They walked out to find the area empty.

"If no ones here, I guess that means I can sneak you another kiss, mistress." Ron said playfully.

"Mistress?" Hermione asked.

"Well until I see Lavender, that is technically your title right?" Ron said humour permiating his face. Hermione hit him lightly.

"That's horrible!" she said. But she looked into his eyes and before she knew it, she found her arms around him and his lips on hers again.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here." the two of them jumped apart suddenly and looked for the source of the voice, none other that their best friend Harry.

"We said you two should make up, not hook up." said Ginny who came out from behind him smiling. "Though I must admit I thought we'd come and find you two either like this or Ron dead."

"Oh be quiet you cheeky sod." Ron said to his sister.

"Not even a word of thanks then? Harry asked, clearly looking pleased with himself.

"I'll thank you when you go away and leave me to kiss Hermione in peace." Ron replied.

"Ron!" came Hermione's voice, though she looked thoroughly pleased.

"Okay, okay I get it." Ginny said, walking off and tugging at Harry to come with her.

"We should do the same thing to them you know." Ron said. Hermione shook her head.

"Harry's not as obtuse as you are, no need."

"I'm obtuse?" Ron replied sounding angry but with a playful look on his face.

"Clearly otherwise we'd have been doing this years ago."

"Oh just shut up and kiss me." Ron replied. Hermione pulled him in and planted his lips on hers.

Fin.

-x-y-z-

Quick oneshot. Written in about 2 hours. I know I should be working on other stuff but it just appeared in my had and I had to write it. Enjoy.


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